National Reading Panel & Reading First Information

National Reading Panel & Reading First Information Adapted from Kozloff & Gill’s (2004) Introduction to Reading First PPT

National Reading Panel • Explicit, systematic phonics instruction is beneficial for beginning readers • Big ideas • Discussed throughout the course • Free materials!!!!! • For educators • For parents

Systematic Instruction Systematic means that: 1. Instruction is given in a planned, ___________________ of things to be taught. For example, certain letter-sounds (a, s, i, m, r) are taught before other letter-sounds (b, n, y, sh) because they are easier to learn and are used more often. 2. Instruction is guided and assessed with ______________________ for everything taught. Objectives are stated in terms of what students will do. ______________. Students read story books quickly and get most words right. ______________. Students are given two minutes to read the assigned passage from “The bear and the hare.” They read the passage at a rate of at least 100 words correct per minute.”

Systematic Instruction: Continued 3. Instruction is focused precisely on the thing (knowledge unit) to be learned, as specified by the _______________. For example, if students are to read a passage at 100 wcpm, then that is exactly what the teacher focuses on during the ten minute fluency exercise during lessons. She does not work on fluency, new vocabulary, and comprehension at the same time. 4. Instruction provides _____________ to strengthen all of the skills worked on.

Systematic Instruction: Continued 5. Instruction provides planned work on __________ (e.g., words, text) to foster application or ______________ of previously taught knowledge. 6. Instruction includes __________ designed and used in a timely fashion to monitor the different phases of instruction, or mastery: acquisition, fluency, generalization, retention, and independence.

Explicit Instruction Explicit means that: 1. The teacher reveals in an obvious and clear way to students the knowledge she is trying to communicate. She does this through demonstrations (_____________) and ___________________ to students. For example, “I’ll show you how to sound out this word. [man is written on the board.] Listen. I do NOT stop between the sounds. [Teacher touches under each letter as she says the sound.] mmmmaaaannn. Now, I’ll say it fast. [Teacher slides her finger under the word.] man.”

Explicit Instruction: Continued 2. The teacher ensures _________________ to _________________ of an example or demonstration. “Look. [points to the word “ate”] Here is a vowel, then a consonant, and then an e at the end [name]. So, we do NOT say the e at the end.”

Explicit Instruction: Continued Here’s an example of instruction that is not __________. It is ___________—or buried in the teacher’s talk. The teacher holds up a big book that has a paragraph from a story. She reads the words slowly. Occasionally she points to the letter r in different words and says rrr. She expects that this will be enough for students to get the connection between the letter and the sound. Of course, many students do not get it.

In contrast, using ______________ instruction the teacher would hold up the big book and say, “New sound. This sound (points to the letter r in ran) is rrr. Say it with me… And this sound (points to r in car) is rrr. Say it with me… And this sound (points to r in barn) is rrr. Let’s see if you remember our new sound. What sound is this? (points to r in ran)… What sound is this? (points to r in barn)… What sound is this? (points to r in car)…. Now I’ll read the story.” (Teacher points to each r as she reads and has students say rrr and then read the whole word.)

Reading First • The No Child Left Behind Act signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002, established Reading First as a new, high-quality evidence-based program for the students of America. • The Reading First initiative builds on the findings of years of scientific research, which, at the request of Congress, were compiled by the National Reading Panel. • Ensuring that more children receive effective reading instruction in the early grades is of critical importance to the President and the nation.

More on Reading First • Reading First is a focused nationwide effort to enable __________ students to become successful early readers. • Funds are dedicated to help states and local school districts eliminate the reading deficit by establishing high-quality, comprehensive reading instruction in kindergarten through grade 3. • Building on a solid foundation of research, the program is designed to select, implement, and provide professional development for teachers using scientifically based reading programs, and to ensure accountability through ongoing, valid and reliable screening, diagnostic, and classroom-based assessment. • North Carolina’s Reading First Program

Main Features • Five major reading skills, or __________ • ____________________ • _____________________ • Systematic and explicit instruction • _____________________ of all aspects of instruction (the first four items in this list) • Reading as a school-wide endeavor

A Comprehensive Set of Curriculum Materials _______ set of curriculum materials (program) is adequate for teaching all five main reading skills to all beginning readers. Materials may have the following weaknesses.

Weaknesses in Curriculum Materials There are two main weaknesses in curriculum materials. • The _______________________ (what is taught and in what order) may not adequately cover all five skills. For example, there is too little instruction on phonemic awareness; some skills are taught in the wrong order; there is too little review and practice.

Weaknesses in Curricula 2. Materials are ________________________, and may not provide the sort of instruction needed by: • Students with ____________________; for example, • small vocabulary • little phonemic awareness • little knowledge of letter-sound correspondence • Students with _______________ learning to read. For example, some students know how to sound out words, but they take too long to do it. As a result, they can’t keep pace as the teacher points to words on the board and asks the class to read each word quickly.

Weaknesses in Curricula Therefore, a comprehensive reading curriculum will have ______________________. Reading First recommends three kinds of curriculum materials, or what is sometimes called the “_______________”

Three-Tiered Model The three sets of materials are • _________. For almost all students. • ___________. To fill gaps in core materials or to provide additional instruction to certain students. • _____________. Highly focused, intensive instruction for certain students.

Core Materials in the Three-Tiered Model A core reading program should: • Cover all five main reading skills, or big ideas. • Be designed to be useful for almost all beginning readers. • Be well-designed, in terms of sequencing of skills, practice, and building simpler skills into more complex wholes, to name a few features.

The University of Oregon’s website states: “A core reading program is the primary instructional tool that teachers use to teach children to learn to read and ensure they reach reading levels that meet or exceed grade-level standards. A core program should address the instructional needs of the majority of students in a respective school or district…Adoption of a core does not imply that other materials and strategies are not used to provide a rich, comprehensive program of instruction.”

Supplemental Materials in the Three-Tiered Model Supplementary curricula or programs are used in two ways. 1. They ___________ in a core reading program. For example, a core program may have too little instruction on rhyming (one aspect of phonemic awareness), or it may have too few storybooks connected to its instruction on decoding and vocabulary. Therefore, a school or district would purchase or create materials to give the additional instruction.

Supplemental Materials in the Three-Tiered Model 2. A core program may ________________________________ some students need on certain skills. For example, some students enter school with a vocabulary so small that they don’t know what the stories are about. Therefore, a school or district might use a supplementary program for accelerating these students’ vocabulary development.

Intervention Materials in the Three-Tiered Model Intervention programs are designed to meet the needs of students with so _______________ or so ___________________ to read that they need specially designed instruction and special, additional time for instruction. For example, diagnostic assessment may show that some kindergartners are falling behind, perhaps because their phonemic awareness skills are still so weak. Or, some third graders struggle to comprehend text because they are still weak on basic comprehension skills. In both cases, students would get __________ for interventions, using materials that focus on their skill weaknesses.

Four Kinds of Assessments A rulein Reading First is that instruction should be ___________ and ________. Teachers need solid information on skills students bring and do not bring to reading instruction, on progress they are making during instruction, and how much progress they made during the year. Without this information, teachers can’t successfully: • _______________ students to proper reading groups and to properly trained teachers. • Decide if the core program is adequate or if students need supplemental or intervention instruction (and on exactly which skills). • Decide at the end of the year if students are __________ to the next year/level of a core program. Therefore, Reading First advocates four kinds of assessments. Each has a different function.

Four Kinds of Assessments: Screening _________________ is used when students ___________ a beginning reading program or at the start of the year. The function is to determine whether a student has the ___________ (e.g., knowledge of the alphabet, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary) that are likely to make instruction in the core program alone adequate, or whether the student has specific skill deficits and learning difficulties that require supplemental and/or intervention instruction.

Progress Monitoring Progress is monitored on skills worked on. These assessments might be done bi-weekly (or more often) to see how much students’ skill at decoding (sounding out) words is improving, or how much fluency (measured as words correct per minute, wcpm) is increasing. This information is used to make decisions.

Progress Monitoring: Continued Decisions based on progress monitoring: • A student should be moved to a reading group that is progressing _____________________________. • A student might get ______________ at decoding so the student reads connected text more accurately and quickly. 3. A student’s progress is so slow ___________ instruction is called for. However, before that is done, more information is needed—supplied by diagnostic assessment, discussed later.

Progress Monitoring: Continued Progress monitoring also says something about the ____________ and/or the ____________ delivered by teachers. For example, 1. If teachers use the core program exactly as instructed but many students make little progress, this suggests weaknesses in the core program. The core then might be reevaluated.

Progress Monitoring: Continued 2.Students in Ms. Black’s class make excellent progress in the core program, but students in Ms. Winter’s class do not. This suggests that Ms. Winter is not using the core properly. For example, Ms. Winter may not correct errors, or she may go to the next lesson before students master skills in the present one. In this case, Ms. Winter’s teaching must be assessed. The inventory, here, shows how to assess teachers’ reading instruction. • http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/inventory.doc

Diagnostic Assessment Screening assessment may show, for example, that a student has little knowledge of phonemic awareness. But what does this mean? • Does this mean the student is not read to and talked with enough at home? • Does it mean the student can’t easily hear the differences between one word and another? • Does it mean the student simply has trouble producing the sounds?

Diagnostic Assessment: Continued Likewise, progress monitoring may show that a student is not picking up skill at sounding out words. Does this mean the student’s knowledge of letter-sound relationships (s says /s/) is weak, and therefore the student can’t say and blend the separate sounds in many words? Or could it be that the student knows letter-sound relationships but has a hard time retrieving and then using this knowledge quickly enough to keep up with the pace of instruction? Clearly, making the right instructional decision requires answers to these questions, which are supplied by diagnostic assessment.

Outcome Assessment Outcome assessment determines ________________________________________. This information is used to evaluate: • The quality of the ______________________________ • The quality of __________________________. • Student motivation, attention, and participation. • Students’ specific reading skills and difficulties—leading to decisions about curricula (keep, change, modify), instruction (ways to improve and how to assist teachers), and classroom management.

Features of Good Assessments Assessment instruments should: • Provide ________ information (information on the skills that need to be measured). • Be _____________ for students’ age and grade level. • Be ____________ (different users would get about the same data with the same students). • Be relatively ________ to use. 5. Provide ______________ information (e.g., 100 correct words per minute) rather than impressions (“Sally reads pretty accurately and quickly”). Therefore, it’s wise to select instruments with a solid track record.

National Reading Panel & Reading First Information